Cherry Nutrition Benefits

By Karen Ansel, M.S., R.D., "Choose Cherries," May/June 2012

Eating cherries may help you sleep better, lose weight and help prevent some diseases.

Sweet or sour, cherries are bursting with nutrition. Find out how these petite stone fruits can help improve your health, from a better night’s rest to a trimmer tummy to managing gout.

Get a better night’s sleep.
Tart cherries are one of nature’s few sources of melatonin, a hormone that lowers body temperature, making us sleepy. When study volunteers drank an ounce of tart cherry juice concentrate in the morning and again at night, they slept more soundly. Even better: sipping the tart concentrate may provide an alternative to a melatonin supplement. “The melatonin in tart cherry juice is very well absorbed and is utilized by the body to provide an effect that could rival melatonin supplements,” says study author Glyn Howatson, Ph.D.

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